#m3.1

[irrepam]

Hinc via, Tartarei quæ fert Acherontis ad undas;

Turbidus hic cæno vastaque voragine gurges

Æstuat, atque omnem Cocyto eructat arenam.

[sternbloggerconfusion]

M3.1

The information age is a fascinating age. Without it, I don’t doubt that about half the kids now a days would find school pretty hard. With the information age we are able to find information easier and since I’ve grown up in it, I can say that it’s a great time to be alive. Everything is much more ‘out there’ than what it used to be before – we have so much information available to us at our fingertips. Sending messages to family members used to take months, now all it takes is a few seconds to type up a message and press send. It’s amazing and I can’t imagine how hard life would be if it were to suddenly disappear and society went back to how it used to be.

  It was because of this that post-industrial society happened. We all now depend on services rather than goods because of the technology we have. Computers and technology make up everything; this means that instead of men working on raw materials we have machines to do the work for them. It makes life easier – save for the people who are fired because of the new technology coming out and their skills are no longer necessary.

  But it’s now very hard to escape from technology. Sitting in class at University, about three quarters of the students taking up the room have a computer sitting in front of them. Just a few years back people were using pens and pencils along with paper in classes to take notes. Technology really has taken over the world. This can relate to the political economy. Politics has changed hugely since the birth of technology. Reporters now have cameras instead of pencils or pens. They can take scandalous photos; they could destroy you with just one photo. Before, they didn’t have to worry about that. An example of this is Rob Ford. Without the technology we have today, no one would know about him smoking crack while in office or his murderous threats. It’s a different society we live in now that’s been greatly shaped by technology. Everything now depends on your image you portray for the camera/media.

  Information and Communication Technologies opens up new doors for us but it also shuts the door on control most of the time. An example given in the text by Les Levidow is online classes. In person you have more control of the students and are able to see where they are at and if they understand the content. But, online, you can’t really do that. You have to just assume they’re doing their work and understand what they’re doing. Since it is the technologies that are focused on communicating, you can’t exactly control what someone posts on Facebook, for example. You never know what can go on over these technologies. There are some that have the power to control them (the government, hackers, etc) but, in the end, things can happen that even they don’t have any control over.